As the Fondation Louis Vuitton prepares to pull out all the stops this October with an exhibition of 200 works from Moma telling the story of the institution, and as the Grand Palais exhibits 250 artworks by Irving Penn in a curatorial project set up the Metropolitan Museum (an excellent exhibition which we will soon be reporting on), the Musée Maillol in the district of Saint Germain des Près has the more modest aim of exhibiting a selection of Pop art from the collections of the Whitney Museum.

Featuring 60 artworks, the show is a good one (despite an abundance of prints) because it displays famous artworks by the likes of Warhol and Lichtenstein etc… alongside works from lesser-known names on the California scene, but above all because it exhibits works made during pop art’s key period: the sixties.

Adam Weinberg successfully orchestrated the Whitney’s fundraising initiative and relocation from its historic building on Madison Avenue to the new premises designed by Renzo Piano in the Meatpacking District.

The director of the museum explains that he is not in competition with Moma, and that the exhibition at the Musée Maillol is conceived like a “little gem”.

At a time when the America of the artists and intellectuals is in the midst of a great dissident movement in the face of the Trump presidency, it proves interesting to interview the director of the largest museum in the world dedicated to American art, the Whitney.

Given that this institution, central to the New York Art landscape and therefore the world stage, had been created at a time when European art held hegemonic status, what should we think of its role today, when New York is clearly the epicentreif not of the art world as a whole at least of the global art market?

Adam Weinberg is sharp and quick.

He played the 5 answers in 50 seconds game very effectively.

Why is it important to be the director of a museum dedicated to American art?

Do you think that an American museum today has to make some political statements?